Asp (fish)

Asp ( Leuciscus aspius ) from the Sävjaån, Sweden.

The asp or arbitration ( Leuciscus aspius ( Syn: Aspius aspius ) is a species of fish in the carp family (Cyprinidae ) to this fish group includes about 2,500 species..

The to 80 ( max. 120 ) centimeters long asp is very streamlined. The toothless mouth is upper constant, very large and the column mouth extends to below the eye. Asp have 137 intermediate muscle bones. They are therefore not sought after food fish.

While the fish lives as a typical Fried fish in his youth, he feeds on predatory with advanced age. He is next to the only chub carp fish in our local waters, which lives mainly predatory.

The spawning season of the asp extends from April to June, the males tuberculate can show.

The asp lives in rivers of Central Europe, east of the Rhine, and in Eastern Europe to the Volga. Its southernmost occurrence is the current area of ​​the Danube, its northernmost southern Sweden and southern Finland. He immigrated from the East to Western Europe through the construction of the Main -Danube Canal. The asp is a typical surface hunters and preferred fast-flowing waters with strong currents.

As in Germany, the western limit of distribution of this species and that their habitat is endangered here, she was accepted by the EU in the Appendix of the Habitats Directive.

Implications for fisheries

As mentioned at the beginning of the asp in the back fillet has left and right each have a series of so-called Y- bones, and along stabilizing in the back part between muscular bones. Therefore, he is spurned by many fishermen.